Top Moments of the (Half-) Decade

The New Year is well under way. Classes for the spring semester begin on Monday and residence halls open at 11 a.m. Saturday, so campus will be buzzing again this weekend for the first time since early last month.

However, student-athletes from our winter sports teams have been back for the most part since the first week of January.

Here's a brief recap...

...No. 3-ranked Men's Hockey won the Cardinal Classic (Jan. 1-2) by a combined score 17-1. The team is 3-1-2 this month and resumes the SUNYAC schedule this weekend at Geneseo and Brockport. The Cardinals are in second place behind conference leader and No. 1 Oswego by only three points.

...No. 4 Women's Hockey continues to roll over the competition by going 3-1-1 so far in 2010, with the only blemishes being a 2-1 loss to defending national champion Amherst (Jan. 3) and a 3-3 tie at Utica (Jan. 9). But, more importantly, the Cardinals pace the ECAC West with 17 points heading into this weekend's key conference series with Rochester Tech at home. Plattsburgh has already swept second-place Elmira (13 points) and could be in prime position to host the tournament depending on the results against the third-place Tigers (12 points).

...Men's Basketball is fighting for positioning in the SUNYAC standings. The Cardinals are tied for third place with Buffalo State and Cortland (but, currently, would lose head-to-head tiebreaker to both teams) going into a tough Brockport-Geneseo road trip this weekend. They have lost four of five games in January, but the results have been close--by an average margin of six points. Plus, all but one game has been played on the road.

...Women's Basketball continues to battle injuries and finding an identity. The team's Achilles' heal all year has been shooting. In two wins, the Cardinals are shooting 44 percent from the field. But in 10 losses, they are only 33 percent. Taylor Amarando is almost averaging a double-double with 15.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.

...Indoor Track and Field is at the Saint Lawrence Invitational on Saturday. This season is full of promise for the Cardinals, who expect to score more points at the SUNYAC and ECAC meets with better team depth. Coach John Lynch has launched a new team blog giving visitors a closer connection to the program:
http://gocardinalsxctrack.blogspot.com/

As promised in the previous edition of this blog, I was going to reveal the Top 5 Moments in Cardinal Sports of the last(-half) decade. The reason for that point of reference--since 2005--is because that's when I arrived here and I don't think I can give justice to a Top 10 list that includes 2000-04. But you can! Please give me (stewarpa@plattsburgh.edu, with Top 10 as the Subject Line) your Top 10 Burghy Sports Moments of 2000, then I'll rank 'em and publish the results on this blog.

Back to the Top Moments...
#5: Men's Basketball won its third SUNYAC championship in a row and made its third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament during 2007-08 season, reaching the Sweet Sixteen. The Cardinals set a conference record for most wins in an undefeated regular-season at 16-0, plus won all three conference tournament games. The squad went 27-3 overall, leading the nation in winning percentage (.900) while being the only Division III team to go unbeaten during in-region play at 20-0. The Cardinals set a school record for overall wins and tied another with 20 consecutive victories. They also set program firsts in the national rankings: peaking at No. 7, 16 consecutive weeks in the Top 25 poll, final ranking of No. 13 and 450 poll points (with one first-place vote) during Week 14. Consensus All-American Anthony Williams became the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,734points, appeared on ESPNU while playing in the Collegiate Basketball Invitational All-Star Game and was a finalist for the Josten's Player of the Year and the V-Foundation Jim Valano Comeback Person of the Year.

#4: The 2007 softball team appearing in its first College World Series, finishing fourth in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals, who went 37-14 overall and 16-4 SUNYAC/2nd Place, were also fourth in the NFCA Top 25 coaches' poll for their highest-ranking ever. The team set a plethora of records, including 16 straight weeks (actually stretching from 2006-08 seasons) in the NCAA national rankings. Plattsburgh crushed SUNYAC champion and regional host Cortland in the Northeast Finals, earning its first regional crown while defeating three Top 25 squads along the way. SUNYAC Pitcher of the Year and All-American Stephanie Zweig was profiled on the NCAA Spring Championships Show by CBS, and the coaching staff was voted the best for the Northeast Region as well as second runner-up for national honors.

#3: Women's Cross Country finishing as the runner-up at the 2007 NCAA Championships. The team featured three All-Americans in Allison Busby, Alyssa Recny and Toni Wiszowaty. The Cardinals were nationally ranked wire-to-wire for the first time in program history, debuting at No. 20 and finishing a record-high fifth in the coaches' poll. The team finished third at SUNYACs but won the NCAA Atlantic Regional for the first time a week later. Plattsburgh also led the nation for all NCAA institutions with three academic All-Americans (the same three names as above) on the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Cross Country/Track Team.

#2: Women's Hockey attendance of 1,736 fans at the Stafford Ice Arena on Feb. 8, 2006, setting an NCAA Division III record for a regular-season game. The inaugural Stuff Stafford promotion featured prize giveaways and a 4-1 win by the Cardinals over the two-time national champions Middlebury Panthers. The game generated a lot of media attention from the three area broadcast news stations, plus NCAA.com.

#1: The 2007 women's hockey team winning its first national title, becoming just the second sport at Plattsburgh to do that. Even more remarkable was the fact that the Cardinals became the first NCAA women's hockey champion to go undefeated at 27-0-2 (three men's champions have gone undefeated), setting or tying Division III records for winning percentage (.966), home wins (18) and overall victories. Plattsburgh had as many as 10 freshmen in the lineup, plus only two seniors. The Cardinals also broke a school record for consecutive weeks (13) ranked No. 1 in the USCHO.com poll. The team was so dominant that season that it trailed for only 71 minutes and 5 seconds--an equivalent of a full-length game, plus half another period.

Now, it's your turn. I look forward to receiving your Top 10 lists for 2000 in Burghy Sports for tabulation and future publication: stewarpa@plattsburgh.edu